Volume One: The Nature of the Devil Never Changes
Arc: The Great Guerrilla War
Titan King moved through the forest at no great speed.
After some time, crushing trees and earth beneath his gigantic feet, he arrived at a large camp hidden among the trees. The camp could hold around fifty people, perhaps a little more. There was a large fire in the center, along with a few sleeping areas—
nothing else.
Mist appeared around Scarlet King, and the black fog began shrinking until Scarlet King returned to his normal size, in his adult form.
He stepped forward and entered the camp, heading directly toward the fire that had gone out some time ago.
When Scarlet King approached the fire, he immediately placed his hand in the gray ash left behind by the burned wood and said calmly:
"Hah… the ash is still warm."
The ash was pleasantly warm, like standing near a fire capable of warming the body against the cold…
but it could not warm Scarlet King's coldness.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared above him, covering Scarlet King's body.
A crushing blow descended toward his head from a huge round hammer.
But the most it did…
was make his head shake slightly.
Scarlet King's head suddenly moved in an unnatural way.
His neck broke.
His eyes shone with a suffocating blood-red aura as he looked at the one who had struck him.
The attacker was a man with orange hair, an ugly face, and skin close to dark brown.
The man was deeply shocked by Scarlet King's broken neck.
But Scarlet King stood naturally, his neck completely broken and turned one hundred and eighty degrees backward.
Scarlet King was still facing the fire.
The man… was behind him.
He did not turn around.
Only—
his neck twisted first, until it straightened again.
Then his shoulders.
Then his arms.
Then his chest.
Even his feet… broke and turned.
Piece by piece, his body rearranged its direction.
And in the end…
he stood before the man normally.
As if he had been looking at him from the very beginning.
Scarlet King placed a hand on his neck and cracked it, as if he had just woken from sleep, then said to the man:
"Oh, well… someone is trying to kill me."
"I didn't expect I would be discovered this easily."
"But…"
He smiled in a way that made the man's knees knock together.
"What difference does it make?"
"You are all… already dead."
"Now…"
"Come out."
Suddenly, nearly thirty people emerged from all around the camp.
The man looked at them in shock and thought:
(Wait… weren't there supposed to be sixty of them?)
Before he could understand or run—
laser beams shot from Scarlet King's eyes and cut through the man's head, splitting his brain in two. The laser continued its path, dividing his entire body in half. His lungs appeared separated from each other, while stomach acid and severed intestines fell like strands of spaghetti. His heart rolled in front of Scarlet King's foot…
and was still beating.
Scarlet King stood there, looking coldly at the heart, his eyes burning with darkness.
Then he placed his foot on the heart and crushed it with all his strength, shattering the ground beneath it completely.
Scarlet King smiled again with a devilish smile and extended his hand toward the man's body, which had been cut in half. Blood began to move like serpents, wrapping around Scarlet King's right palm before disappearing into it.
All the men stared at the scene in great shock.
After Scarlet King finished absorbing the blood, a black aura burst from him, declaring his breakthrough to the eleventh level of the Qi Refinement Realm.
Scarlet King thought:
(I feel extremely refreshed… but I need to stabilize my level as soon as possible after this battle. Even my previous level was not fully stabilized yet.)
He moved his arms, and the twin daggers Ming Hao appeared from nothing.
"Let us see… who remains standing in the end."
The first man rushed toward Scarlet King and raised his spear toward his face.
Without warning, Scarlet King hid the daggers, grabbed the spear with one hand using all his strength, then raised his other fist and struck the middle of the spear, breaking off its sharp tip. He grabbed the sharp piece and hurled it with full force toward the man's face.
The sharp piece pierced straight through the man's face, while his body was carried by the rest of the spear until it crashed into a distant mountain and completely shattered it from the force of the impact.
Some of the men looked at the completely destroyed mountain, while Scarlet King thought:
(Hah… if we were in an ordinary universe, I would have destroyed the universe itself. But we are inside an immortal universe.)
Several men moved toward Scarlet King.
Scarlet King raised both fists and smiled even wider.
He blocked the first man's attack, then raised his left hand and placed it beneath the man's head. A black crystalline sword emerged from Scarlet King's arm, tearing through flesh and skin before piercing the man's skull and emerging from the other side.
A moderate amount of blood flowed from Scarlet King's arm, while hot, thick blood poured from the man's head.
Scarlet King pulled the sword out, and the corpse fell to the ground.
Then a cannon emerged from his right hand, and he fired an explosive energy sphere toward five men.
When the sphere exploded…
their existence was erased completely.
Not even dust remained.
They vanished as if they had never existed.
Another man moved and punched Scarlet King in the face, pushing him slightly backward.
Scarlet King looked at him with a cold laugh.
"Hey… you do not have the right to hit me."
"I am the ruler here, lowly thing."
Scarlet King moved and punched the man in the stomach with such force that his fist pierced straight through him and came out the other side.
Scarlet King pulled his hand back, while the man fell beside the one whose head had been blown apart, writhing and screaming:
"My stomach… am I really going to die?!"
Scarlet King replied:
"Of course."
He raised his foot and brought it down with all his strength, crushing the man's head until one of his eyes flew far away.
Another man moved and kicked Scarlet King below the belt.
But Scarlet King did not move.
He gave no reaction.
He only smiled, grabbed the man's head, and crushed it instantly, turning his round human head into scattered chunks.
One of the men screamed, his lips trembling:
"He is… a devil… a killing monster!"
Scarlet King's aura dominated the place, making all the men feel as though they were suffocating.
"Hah… today, not one of you will leave in a single piece."
Suddenly, a flash of light appeared at the corner of Scarlet King's eye.
An arrow pierced straight through Scarlet King's head, driving his body back until he crashed into the camp wall. Dust and debris scattered everywhere, blocking the view of Scarlet King.
One of the men whispered:
"Is he dead?… I saw the arrow go through his head."